


The Red Clad Soul

by SquaryQ



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Post canon, Red String of Fate, Soul Mate AU, alternate universe potential canon divergence, alternate universe soul mates, ape titan - Freeform, armin is the vice, jean is now commander, killing the ape titan, red scarf of fate, rip eren, rip hanji, rip mikasa, soul mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 16:45:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6384430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaryQ/pseuds/SquaryQ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The red clad soul waits in limbo for her soul mate – many have come and gone in the time that she has waited, wondering when she would be collected. He had been taken from the world first, so she had thought that when she too died, she would re-join him in heaven. But that is not the case for she did not collect him. Her eyes are closed and the red clad soul simply waits for her partner to come and get her. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Red Clad Soul

**Author's Note:**

> This is not a ship that I would die for - it really isn't one of those ships that I love to the bottom of my heart. BUT I got this idea at 3am and 12 hours later the oneshot is done. I hope you enjoy it!

The red clad soul waits in limbo for her soul mate – many have come and gone in the time that she has waited, wondering when she would be collected. He had been taken from the world first, so she had thought that when she too died, she would re-join him in heaven. But that is not the case for she did not collect him. Her eyes are closed and the red clad soul simply waits for her partner to come and get her. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. 

 

 

In the real world only two of her friends remain together – Commander Jean Kiristein and his Vice, Corporal Armin Arlert. The two men are the only two left alive who remained in the military after getting the option to leave. It had been grim – once Eren Yeager sealed the hole in Wall Maria, all that was left to do was exterminate all that remain within the Walls. A tumultuous task but one Eren could not commit to. He had been seized by The Military Police and executed due to ‘no longer being of use’ – it had been a dark time for those that knew him, for those who had loved him. Everybody from Lance Corporal Levi Ackerman, to Armin, to the Queen Historia Reiss. Nobody could have stopped it. 

Eren Yeager was killed quickly at the hands of a teary Ackerman at an official ceremony to honour his value.   
It seems so trivial even now, Jean makes a fist. Just thinking back to what had happened made him realise that it made no sense. It had been so ridiculous. They could have still used him. He could have been of use even now – the ape titan was still alive. Eren could have been an asset to the Scouting Legion for a little while longer.

Mikasa, his adoptive sister was in a funk for a long time. She was Jean’s right hand after Levi Ackerman retired when the wall was sealed. Watching Hanji Zoe die had done too much to him that he could no longer stay with the Scouting Legion.   
Mikasa had cut her hair even shorter than it was when he was alive. She wore that fraying tear stained scarf with pride and solidarity and declared from the moment Eren passed, that she would be buried with him. 

Jean had accepted that that was what would happen to her. But when she fell victim to the titans it was an atrocity – the one thing that she had used to keep close to Eren became her downfall because one of those mindless cretins seized hold of her, snapping her neck with the sheer impact of being jolted backward. Jean had watched the titan grab her and deviated from his faultless formation to save her. Even though it was futile. He nearly lost several limbs in a futile attempt to grab her. 

He had been lucky that he was one of the top students back in the 104th Trainee Squad when it came to using the Three Dimensional Manoeuvre Gear or 3DMG as it tended to be shortened to. He barrelled toward her despite the dangers at hand and hacked off the arm that was holding the dead Mikasa up. She was painfully close to its lips when she went tumbling down.   
Jean had saved her body from becoming a ball of titan regurgitation but was unable to save her life. He had picked her up from the bloodied ground and taken her, on his back, to where the bodies were being held, atop of a tree until the perimeter was secure. 

He sighs at the memory as he leads the next attack formation – they were going to achieve a lot today. They were going after the “ape titan”. Jean makes a fist and adjusts the piece of red fraying woollen material again. He had claimed her red scarf before her burial. He wanted to keep Lance Corporal Mikasa Ackerman alive with him. He knew he needed to. His heart always belonged to her. He gave his heart to her back when they were still in the 104th. 

He shakes his head. 

“Jean, are you okay?” Armin asks from his position in the triangular attack formation. The blond has his hair up in a bun. He looks calm and collected, but of course he is – combining the means of thinking that he and Jean have, Armin has the right to some confidence. 

“I’m okay.”

“You were thinking of Mikasa again.” The blond states, knowingly. 

“I know I was! I just need to stay composed. Once this piece of shit is dead then the rest should succumb to that gift left in the basement.”

“I still can’t believe it was some sort of titan killing toxin. The entire Scouting Legion had to be injected with that serum so the titans can die after devouring a person.”

“I’m not suggesting that we inoculate everybody and end them out to die, you know!”

“I know you weren’t. You can relax a bit, Jean. But you need to be careful – if you reopen that wound you sustained in the last mission, I doubt you’ll be treated in time to make it.” 

“You know you’ll be taking my place if I die, right?” 

“I do.”

“Good. Now let’s keep going, Lance Corporal Arlert!” 

“Yes, Commander Kiristein!” 

The formation is sent to expand. Armin and Jean’s right flank each veer off to their respective directions to expand the reach of the attack. Jean had changed the method of preserving life too. Commander Erwin Smith’s method prevented casualties, but now that people were being recruited left right and centre, eagerly compelled by their new commander, they no longer needed to use ‘meat shields’. 

Instead of using people as ‘meat shields’, Jean retrained new recruits personally so they could dance through the skies and attack with the same levels of skill as the more seasoned veterans in this war against the titans. This increased the number of survivors, and the injections everybody needed to have, meant titans were dropping left, right and centre. 

The formation moves on, in a diamond shape, heading toward where the ape titan was last spotted by the Wall Top squads, led by Deiter and the Garrison. 

The ape titan had last been seen, moving toward Trost again. A furious Jean kept his forces intact and determined. They had left through Jiane and moved southward toward Trost, ready to destroy that monster. Jean, having grown up in that town, was ready to avenge his fallen trainees that were lost in his hometown. This was his chance. This was his chance to finally feel like he had done right by Marco Bodt, and make a difference. 

A green smoke round is fired every thirty minutes from behind him that the cadets would relay to keep Jean aware of whether there was any trouble. 

After three hours on horseback, he spots a black smoke round from the wall. The monster has been spotted. Jean forwards the information, using a round of violet smoke. Armin and his right flank forward this information to the groups toward the back. 

Jean casts a glance to Armin and reaches for the weaponry.

Once they can see the hairy monstrosity of a titan, Jean balls his fist and fires a round of blue smoke. He and his selected squad would engage with this creature, regardless of its vocalisations. Jean had instructed that they must disarm the creature first, so has three people on either side of him that shall barrel through the arms while he himself goes to cut off the ape titan’s voice box. 

Jean decided to be the riskiest in this mission despite his injury because he learned a secret from Levi Ackerman when he had retired with severe PTSD. One can kill a titan from the inside. You just have to cut your way out of the nape. It is a bloody and disgusting tumultuous task, but Jean knows that if Levi is trusting him with that information, he is sure that he will not become paralysed with fear when faced with the prospect of his demise. 

The trios on both sides of him shoot into the air, using their horses’ saddles as ramps to jump from. Jean smiles at his subordinates, following them into the mess that may be his last fight. The commander leaps into the air, going between the titan’s legs to reach its’ front. From there, Jean drags a blade up its stomach until reaching where the voice box is. He adjusts his distance, propelling backwards so he can throw the blades at the box. 

His attack lands rather well, a choked out shriek like an animal with a crushed windpipe erupts out of the ape titan’s mouth. Jean’s brows furrow as the beast attempts to climb Wall Rose and enter Trost. 

Jean, furious at this action, propels upward towad the monster’s neck and attempts the slit the nape, only to be grabbed by the ape titan and forced into its mouth, swallowed whole. Jean smirks slightly and fires a hook of his 3DMG into the roof of the titan’s mouth and swings in a circular motion, sheering skin deeply within the neck. A choked out pained scream comes from the mouth, shaking Jean. He scrambles in the air and is stabbed by his own blades that pierced the voice box. He hisses, muttering a curse. 

This was not what he had wanted – Jean did not want to reopen his leg wound. And now it is burning, a second cut ripping through the first semi-healed gash. He grits his teeth and with great concentration is able to pierce the titan’s nape, splattered with masses of blood as he escapes, killing the beast as it collapses onto Wall Rose. 

Jean uses the gas from his 3DMG to descend without harm. He is lightheaded and queasy, leg burning as blood seeps out. 

“Jean!” Armin shrieks, leaping off his horse, “Jean! Stay with me!” 

“I messed up. But that piece of shit is dead. Armin, you know the score. Make sure you make it to the ocean, okay?”

The sides of his vision are clouded with whiteness. He had died as a noble man, not a tragic hero like Marco or Eren. He had not died instantly and painlessly and therefore more emotively, like his beloved Mikasa had done. 

“I will. Now, C’mon Jean.” Armin, physically stronger than he ever was at fifteen, tucks the commander under his arm and lifts him up – mostly fuelled by adrenaline. Armin heads over the wall in a bid of desperate motivation to the town in which Jean grew up. He approaches the horse faced commander’s home and opens the door uninvited. 

“Jean-boy!” his mother howls as Armin brings him in. Mr Kiristein clears the table so Armin can lay Jean there. 

“He’s dying, Mr and Mrs Kiristein. I am sorry. Jean will not have died in vain and will live on through the red scarf.” Armin tugs the material from the now still Jean’s neck. He, like Mikasa, had died wearing the red scarf. And Armin too, would happily die in the collective embrace of Eren, Mikasa and Jean. 

He leaves the room while his mother weeps. Armin must return to the mission. The ape titan is gone but he has left the rest of the people to stand outside Trost, like a meat-shield. 

“I’ll definitely see the ocean, Jean.”

 

All Jean can see is white. Is this limbo?

He looks down at his attire – he is no longer in his uniform, he is in all white, white shirt and white pants. His shoes are white too. The only thing on him that is not white is the red scarf that he had worn when he died. He blinks rapidly as he sees a familiar ethereal face. 

Mikasa. 

The red clad soul opens her eyes, awoken from her rest. Immediately her eyes widen in sheer astonishment as memories and moments flash before her – her oen sense of acknowledgement coming into existence. Mikasa finds herself remembering everything – how he had complimented her on their first day at the 104th, how he saved her life when she was grabbed by a titan back when the Scouting Legion was in a state. How he had gone out of his way to keep her comfortable when she was distraught over Eren’s imminent death. She remembers all of the lingering glances she had avoided to acknowledge.  
Jean.

Her eyes veer to the red around his neck. 

“Is that my?” she asks, approaching him, her white billowy dress fluttering in gusts of wind that have no reason to exist in liminal space. 

“It’s a bit frayed now.” 

She tentatively approaches Jean with a small smile on her face. He touches his face and he blushes. 

“What brought you here so quickly?” 

“I cut my leg, reopened a wound. Bled out. But the ape titan is dead.”

“What about everybody else?”

“It’s all up to Armin now.” 

“He’ll make it to the ocean.” Mikasa acknowledges as blinding white light consumes them and brings the pair to their next life. 

The red clad soul is no longer alone.


End file.
